MILESTONES: August 7, birthdays for Charlize Theron, Michael Shannon, John Glover

August 7, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle History

Charlize Theron. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include singer Billy Joe Thomas, who was born in 1942; hockey player Sidney Crosby, who was born in 1987; actress Charlize Theron, who was born in 1975; actor David Duchovny, who was born in 1960; actor Michael Shannon, who was born in 1974; actor John Glover, who was born in 1944; marathon runner Alberto Salazar, who was born in 1958; author and radio host Garrison Keillor, who was born in 1942; actor Harold Parrineau, who was born in 1963; and actress DeLane Matthews, who was born in 1961.

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THE HATFIELD-MCCOY FEUD turned deadly on this day in 1882, when brothers Tolbert, Pharmer and Randolph McCoy stabbed and shot Ellison Hatfield on election day in the Appalachian town on the Kentucky-West Virginia border where the two families lived. The three McCoy brothers were captured by the Hatfield family, and when Ellison Hatfield died of his wounds two days later, the Hatfields executed the McCoy brothers. The dispute continued for years, and eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court when authorities in Kentucky sought to detain the murder suspects and West Virginian authorities disputed the order. The court sided with Kentucky.

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THE FIRST BLACK NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT Ralph Bunche, was born on this day in 1904 in Detroit. The American statesman and political scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize for his mediation in Israel in the late 1940s. Bunche played a major role in the formation of the United Nations and later served in numerous UN peacekeeping operations. President John F. Kennedy awarded Bunche the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. He retired from the UN in 1971 and died in New York City that same year.

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DUTCH EXOTIC DANCER, COURTESAN AND SPY Mata Hari was born Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands on this day in 1876. In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider, an artist’s model and an exotic dancer. She posed as a Javanese princess of the priestly Hindu caste named Mata Hari. She had relationships with high-ranking French politicians and military officers. Because the Netherlands remained neutral in WWI, Zelle was able to cross borders freely. She was arrested in a hotel room in Paris on suspicion of spying for the Germans, and later executed by firing squad in 1917. According to an eyewitness account, Zelle refused a blindfold and blew the firing squad a kiss.

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“There are no warlike people — just warlike leaders.”

—Ralph Bunche, who was born on this day in 1904.